TORCH Goes Digital! presents a series of live online events Big Tent - Live Events! This event is part of the Humanities Cultural Programme, one of the founding stones for the future Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities.

TORCH and the Voltaire Foundation present the 2020 Besterman Lecture: ‘Who were the French Revolutionaries?’ by Professor William Doyle, Professor Emeritus of History and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol

Introduced by Karen O'Brien (Head of Humanities Division, Oxford University) and Gregory S. Brown (General Editor of Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment and Senior Research Fellow, Voltaire Foundation). Moderated by Professor Lauren Clay, Vanderbilt University.

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When Napoleon in 1799 declared that the French Revolution was over, he said that was because it was now established on the principles with which it began. The implication was that much of what had happened over the preceding decade of upheaval had not been in accordance with those principles. Napoleon took care, of course, not to state what they were: his constitution was the first since 1789 not to contain a declaration of basic rights. Yet everyone during the Revolution claimed to be acting on revolutionary principles, or denounced their opponents for betraying them. Can we distinguish between those who held to and those who ignored or compromised revolutionary aspirations? This lecture will make the attempt, challenging some of the most enduring assumptions in revolutionary historiography.

Speakers:
Professor William Doyle is Professor Emeritus of History and Senior Research Fellow, University of Bristol.

Introduced by Karen O'Brien, Head of Humanities Division, Oxford University and Professor Gregory S. Brown, General Editor of Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment and Senior Research Fellow, Voltaire Foundation.

Moderated by Professor Lauren Clay, Vanderbilt University.

With thanks to the Voltaire Foundation